Branson's Virgin Orbit fails on first rocket launch try, days before NASA-SpaceX launch

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit has failed in its first test launch of a new rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over Pacific Ocean off coast of Sourn California. inaugural launch h appeared to be going well until moments after rocket was dropped from beneath left wing of jumbo jet dubbed Cosmic Girl. We've confirmed a clean release from aircraft.

However, mission terminated shortly into flight. Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base, Virgin Orbit said in its official Twitter commentary on launch on Monday. re was immediate word on what went wrong with rocket, which carried a test satellite. Will Pomerantz, Virgin Orbit's vice president for special projects, commented during a preflight briefing Saturday that about half of first rocket launches fail. History is t terribly kind, necessarily, to maiden flights, he said.

Chief Executive Officer Dan Hart said during briefing that re h been numerous tests, discussions and introspection to verify that system was rey. In end questions are always, has everything been thought about and are re any gaps or seams, and those are questions you only learn when you commit to flight, Hart said. highly modified jumbo jet took off from Mojave Air and Por t in desert rth of Los Angeles and flew out just beyond Channel Islands, where drop occurred.

rocket was supposed to fall for a few seconds before first of its two sts ignited and hurtled it down coast toward South Pole for insertion of its demonstration paylo into a low Earth orbit. purpose of flight was to gar data on every step of launch process rar than to have a useful satellite in orbit; demonstration paylo was described as an inert mass and intended orbit was very low to avoid contributing to problem of junk. attempt followed five years of development of 70-foot-long (21.3 meter) LauncherOne rocket.

How long setback will affect company was t immediately clear. It has six ditional rockets under construction in its factory. team's alrey hard at work digging into data, and we're er to hop into our next big test ASAP, company tweeted. Thankfully, inste of waiting until after our 1st flight to tackle our 2nd rocket, we've alrey completed a ton of work to get us back in air and keep moving forward. A successful launch by Virgin Orbit would have marked a dramatic step in getting back on track after coronavirus pandemic sent most employees home earlier this year while work s, procedures and mission control were justed.

Virgin Orbit is targeting market for launching satellites ranging in size from toasters to household refrigerators. time is right for small satellite launch market, Hart said on Saturday. Techlogy vancements have enabled satellites much smaller than tritional paylos to do real work in , typically from low Earth orbit, and for markets ranging from commercial to national security, he said. While or companies are developing rockets for small satellite market and builders of big rockets like X can carry m into orbit in a ride-share arrangement with large satellites, Virgin Orbit's air launch system based on aviation industry's workhorse 747 is intended to put a satellite up when and where a customer needs it, Hart said.

We can fly to from any place that can host a 747, which is almost any place, he said. Virgin Orbit says it has dozens of missions on books for customers including US Force and Royal Air Force. Internationally, it is working on plans for launches from United Kingdom and Japan. Hart did t provide a specific dollar value for missions it has on books but characterised it as hundreds of millions. Air launch techlogy dates back deces, including use by X-15 rocket planes in 1950s and '60s.

For satellites method is currently in use by what is w rthrop Grumman's Pegasus rocket program, which has h several dozen launches since 1990. Virgin Orbit, hequartered in Long Beach, California, began as a sister company of Virgin Galactic but has since separated. Virgin Galactic is preparing to begin flights carrying passengers into lower reaches of from sourn New Mexico.